Thursday

I have been meditating, unexpectedly, on Hebrews chapter 4
for a while, the second verse in particular. I was listening to it in The
Message when it first hit me.

“We received the same promises as those people in the
wilderness, but the promises didn’t do them a bit of good because they didn’t
receive the promises with faith.” TMB

This is a topic that Father and I have been cogitating on
together for many months. Now, I know that The Message is not the most literal
translation of the scriptures, so I wanted to see if the same idea existed in a
more precise translation.

“For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to
them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with
faith in those who heard it.” NKJV

Yep. It’s still there.

The topic I have been working on for a while is this. That
God’s promises are not the whole story. There’s more to this story, than just
God declaring wonderful promises to us.

Clearly, there has to be. There are so many amazing
promises, in Scripture, in public prophetic words, and our daily devotions. If
God making the promise was all that was needed for that promise to be
fulfilled, we would be living in a Heavenly Utopia right now.

But we’re not. Therefore, ipso facto, there must be more to
it.

And this verse tells us what that “more” is. If we don’t mix
the promises that he has given us with faith, then the promise goes
unfulfilled. The limitation is not his. It is ours.

Hebrews four declares that it has been this way for
thousands and thousands of years, since the journey to the promised land. This
is the reason that Israel did not inhabit some of the things that she was
promised.

And this is a reason that you and I have not experienced the
fullness of every one of our promises.

It is probably worth mentioning that the thing that is
holding us back is almost certainly not the thing that we *think* is holding us
back. It is almost certain that what we think is responding in faith to our
promises is not actually the same as what God thinks “mixing those promises
with faith” actually is.

We think we are responding to the promises with faith, but
either we are mistaken, or God is a liar. I know who I am going to believe in
this situation, and it’s not me. I’m going to believe that God is not a liar.
So I clearly have missed it on this one.

It is beyond the scope of this brief missive to discuss what
actual faith really is, what really will empower all of our promises. But if it
was the thing that we call faith, that we have called faith all of our lives,
then we would not be living the life that we are currently living, would we?

For the record, it’s pretty obvious that my own definitions
of mixing promises with faith have been inferior, or insufficient, also. I
suspect that this will be a topic of conversation between Father and myself for
quite some time. You are invited to join in this search with me.

Jesus promised us that our growth would be rewarded with
pruning. We think, “Pruning? That’s cutting! That’s taking things away! That
can’t be good!”

Here are some details about pruning.

• Pruning carefully will drastically increase the
fruitfulness of the pruned tree. Cutting back results in a dramatic increase of
fruit!

• Pruning at the right spot strengthens frame of the base
plant. Pruning makes you stronger.

• Pruning is not actually optional (John 15:2). If we bear
fruit, we will be pruned. If we do not bear fruit, we’ll be cut back very
severely (but not killed), so that when we grow back, we’ll grow fruit. And
when we do, we’ll be pruned for even more fruit.

So how does he prune us?

In John 15:3 Jesus says, “You are already clean because of
the word I have spoken to you.” So him speaking his word to us is part of our
cleaning, our pruning. This is him speaking to us, mostly through the Book, and
a lot of that is about how to respond to the crap in our life.

In Luke 13:8, he gives us more detail. The conversation is
about pruning, and in that parable, Jesus says to the Father, “Leave [him]
alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it....”

Fertilizer in that day was manure: animal poo. So pruning
may show up as crap in our life.

Here’s an example: in Luke 9, the boys are arguing about
who's greatest. That's poo. The ambition to be great is actually good. The
competition apparently is the poo.

So in 9:48, Jesus prunes them. “Whoever welcomes this little
child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent
me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.”

This is what pruning looks like. That’s not as bad as we
feared, is it?

Abraham believed God & God made a covenant with him. (Gen.
15:6 & 18) That covenant was based on the fact that Abe believed God. Now
he’s God’s friend, as well as his covenant partner.

But in Genesis 12, Abe is afraid & lies about Sara. He
was afraid the king would kill him to get his hands on his hot wife, so he
says, “She’s my sister, not my wife!”

Abraham is giving in to a spirit of fear, and he’s a liar.
Those are bad. But God backs him up, IN THE LIE! He defends Abraham (and his marriage)
from the ignorant, horny kings.

Wait, what? God defends the liar? And defends the lie? Why
would he do that?

It was hundreds of years later that Moses comes down the
mountain with The Law, which includes “Don’t sleep with another man’s wife,” and
“Don’t tell lies” and such. Now, with coming of The Law, adultery and lying
(and several other things) become a sin.

The Law is a part of Moses’ covenant with God. It’s not part
of Abraham’s covenant with God, or Noah’s.

In Abraham’s day, there was no rule that said “Don’t sleep
with his wife,” and no rule that said, “Do not bear false testimony.” These
rules didn’t show up until late in Moses’ life. They weren’t forbidden in
Abraham’s day.

Were they still stupid things to do? Of course. And Abraham
paid the price for that. But they weren’t “wrong” in Abe’s day and age.

So it’s not appropriate (or even meaningful) to judge
Abraham or Noah by a covenant that didn’t exist in their day. In the same way,
it’s not appropriate to judge a Peruvian farmer by Norway’s laws, or to judge a
Mostho factory worker based on Peruvian law.

And The Law not actually part of our New Covenant either.
Therefore, it’s completely inappropriate to judge New Covenant believers by
Moses’ covenant. Or Noah’s covenant. Or any other covenant.

Are you a New Covenant believer? Then it’s completely
inappropriate to judge yourself by Moses’ covenant either.